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55,000 sign petition against Obama statue

RNW archive

This article is part of the RNW archive. RNW is the former Radio Netherlands Worldwide or Wereldomroep, which was founded as the Dutch international public broadcaster in 1947. In 2011, the Dutch government decided to cut funding and shift RNW from the ministry of Education, Culture and Science to the ministry of Foreign Affairs. More information about RNW Media’s current activities can be found at https://www.rnw.org/about-rnw-media.

About 55,000 Indonesians have signed a petition to have a statue of US President Barack Obama removed.

The statue of the US president as a young boy is located in a park in the capital Jakarta and was unveiled last month. Barack Obama lived in Jakarta from ages six to ten.

Critics say Mr Obama has done nothing for Indonesia and does not deserve a statue. They have opened a petition on the network site Facebook and submitted the results to the Indonesian authorities who have said they will consider the issue.

Dwi Bintarto, the official responsible for Jakarta's city parks, says the statue does not represent Obama as president of the United States, but rather as a young boy. He said the statue is intended to motivate young people to study hard and set themselves ambitious objectives.